Disney Abandons Sports Streaming Venture, Acquires Majority Stake in One-Time Competitor FuboTV
Until late last year, sports-focused pay TV provider FuboTV counted itself among an elite cohort — it was among the 100 most popular stocks on Robinhood and a popular pick among retail investors to take on TV streaming giant YouTube TV (owned by. But while the company racked up nearly 2M subscribers, higher content costs and slower growth had made investors increasingly impatient — and its waning appeal among the retail crowd represented a perfect buying opportunity for a one-time enemy.
- In August, Fubo won an injunction to stop Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros Discovery from launching a cheaper sports streaming service called Venu.
- However, with down 57% last year, Disney has changed its attitude on sports streaming — purchasing a 70% stake in FuboTV and announcing it would abandon Venu late last week.
Controversy continues: With the Mouse House’s acquisition of FuboTV, the original litigation to stop Venu has been dismissed, but other pay TV providers are raising their weapons. Dish Network (owned by and DirecTV (owned by argue that Fubo’s original case failed to address key issues and accused Disney of buying the company to prevent an antitrust fiasco. We’ll have to see if these arguments stir the courts. But in any case, investors have been stirred — rose 258% last week. And Disney, which already owns Hulu + Live TV, will now boast 6.2M subscribers and over $6B in annual revenue for its pay-TV services. Look out, YouTube.
